errevserrentWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: erre is a noun, errent is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“erre” is a noun and “errent” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#27,429
“erre” frequency rank
#45,590
“errent” frequency rank
73019
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature erre errent
Definition Lettre latine R, r. Troisième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de errer.

Same sound, different letters: erre vs errent

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 4 letters. erre runs 4 letters (VCCV) against errent's 6 (VCCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
erre
6 ch
errent

Same sound, different spelling - erre / errent

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: erre and errent carry the same recorded pronunciation, \ɛʁ\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anoun, the other averb, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “erre” sits inside “errent”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 73019, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

erre is recorded at frequency rank #27,429, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɛʁ\. errent is at rank #45,590, tagged as averb, pronounced \ɛʁ\.

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 73019, this pair ranks #41,942 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of erre vs errent

Shared letters: er. Private to "erre": -. Private to "errent": nt.

"erre" · 4 letters · shape VCCV  ·  "errent" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • erre ← ere · erer · rere
  • errent ← erent · erernt · errennt · errentt · erretn · errnet · rerent

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "erre" for "errent" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "erre" is a noun and "errent" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "erre" vs "errent" - which ranks higher?
"erre" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #27,429 in our French list, against #45,590 for "errent". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.

  • Full dictionary entry for "erre" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "errent" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #41,942 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "erre" and "errent" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "errants vs errent". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #41,942 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list